Heavylift / Breakbulk

From Ravenna to Rotterdam

The company Briese Chartering recently transported eight 74 m pylons weighing 282 t each from the Adriatic to the North Sea. The world’s largest crane ship took over the consignments there and took them to their final destination on an oil platform.

Handling oversized freight is the core business of Briese Chartering, a unit of the Leer-based German enterprise Briese, which has a fleet of just under 50 vessels capable of handling almost any type of breakbulk and heavylift consignment. A contract that Briese Chartering comple­ted at the end of February and the beginning of March was only ever going to be handled by the BBC London.

Eight pylons = 2,256 tThe twin-deck vessel sports a loading area of no less than 12,181 m²; this means it has the largest capacity in Briese’s fleet, together with its sister ships, the BBC Livorno and the BBC Lagos. The BBC London was berthed in the port of ­Ravenna, where it loaded eight consignments. That may not sound like much, but the eight 74 m pylons with a 2.5 m radius weighed 282 t each. Such an impressive load meant that elaborate and extensive preparatory work was necessary, even if the BBC London can carry 8,000 t.

All hatch coverings and many ’tween-deck barriers had to be removed – a task that took three days. The loading process could only be commenced once this job was successfully completed.

Record crane vessel in actionAll in all the BBC London spent eight days in the Italian port of Ravenna before it could set sail for Rotterdam. The Dutch port wasn’t the cargo’s final destination, however. Briese’s crew waited for the Sleipnir to arrive there – the largest crane vessel in the world.

The Sleipnir’s two 10,000 t cranes hauled the pylons on deck and shipped the consignments to an oil platform. For Briese Chartering the project proved that close collaboration between crews on land and at sea enables a team to easily complete a complex job.